EU is starting to show a responsible and consequent approach to fisheries management. The cod struggle in Poland is only one example of EU crackdown on illegal fishing. Seven other European Union Member states are facing bluefin tuna catch ban until the end of 2007 in addition to possible penalties for excessive exploitation and misreporting of bluefin tuna catches in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
While the Polish government and fishermen take the cod fishing ban personally accusing the European Union (EU) of wanting to destroy the Polish fisheries as a lobbying effort for Sweden and Germany according to the polish dailies, the European Comission (EC) is cracking down on other exploited fish species, in this case the bluefin tuna. Bluefin tuna landings have been banned in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean until the end of 2007 as the EU quotas have been exhausted for the year.
According to the European Comissions press release, infringement procedures have been started against seven EU Member states: Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain, countries, which have failed to send catch reports data to the Comission, and have shown lack of obligation and responsibility to the bluefin tuna recovery plan agreed to by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) last year.
According to Greenpeace “the bluefin tuna fishery has one of the highest rates of illegal fishing in the world. In recent years around 50,000 tonnes of bluefin tuna have been caught every year, despite the legal annual quota for the species being 32,000 tonnes until 2006”. In Poland the cod catch quota is 10.8 thousand tonnes per year, and according to a polish daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, Polish fishermen exceeded this quota three times over in the first quarter of cod fishing in 2007 alone. At this rate cod will disappear from our seas and tables in the very near future, as was the case in Eastern Canada in the early 1990s.
It is eveident that fisheries are in trouble globally. Economic benefit of large scale fishing is driving many fish species to extinctinction. According to John C. Crosbie, Canada’s ex-minister of fisheries and oceans, 75% of all fish stocks now classified as either over-fished, exploited, or in a fragile state of recovery. Our cod and bluefin tuna are included.
To ensure sustainable fisheries we need to put environment first, and adopt a fundamental transformation of the management of fisheries to ensure long-term gain and benefit for future generations. Poland should shape up to the international environmental standards as set out by the European Union, and respect the cod ban. The situation will only get worse if there is no more cod in the sea.